The Anatomy of Peace is authored collectively by The Arbinger Institute and published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. The Institute, founded in 1979, developed from the work of former Brigham Young University philosophy professor C. Terry Warner, whose research on self-deception and self-betrayal informs the Institute’s approach to organizational and interpersonal conflict. Authorship of the Institute’s books is credited as such because they’re produced through the collaborative work of multiple contributors. The Anatomy of Peace, as well as other books by the Institute, employs a didactic fictional narrative to convey its principles, centering part of the story on Yusuf al-Falah, a Palestinian Arab Muslim, and Avi Rozen, an Israeli Jew, to explore conflict between people who have experienced loss on opposing sides of a longstanding political conflict. Rather than advocating pacifism, the book argues that even when outward conflict is unavoidable, people can approach it with a “heart at peace” (34). The book’s own Note to Readers states explicitly that although some stories were inspired by actual events, no character or organization represents any specific person or organization.

This narrative strategy, however, has drawn criticism regarding representation and authorship. Reverend Hannah Adair Bonner has criticized the Institute’s use of fictional minority voices, particularly Palestinian and Black characters, arguing that this approach can obscure the perspectives and privileges of the book’s actual authors. She also questions the book’s application of the “heart at war” framework to people responding to systemic oppression (34), arguing that its treatment of conflict can obscure inequalities in power between oppressed groups and their oppressors (Bonner, Hannah Adair. “Anatomy of an Artifice.” Hannah Adair Bonner, 14 May 2014). Bonner’s critique raises questions about whether the book’s universal approach to conflict adequately accounts for systemic injustice and unequal power relations.